Dude, haha...they are not capable defensive players. Jordan Farmar isn't going to suddenly gain lateral quickness just because he's making shots. Hell, more than likely, he'd get even slower after attempting four or five threes.

When has Vujacic ever played defense? Even when he dropped 15-20 points, he never played a lick of defense. His ability to hang all over guys like a fur coat gets him in trouble, like it did against Chris Paul.

Odom isn't young. He's considered an NBA veteran (10th season now).

Ariza isn't scoring, but he's still playing defense (or trying his hardest to). Kobe gave him that three to cut the lead late in the game, and he took five seconds just to brick it.

Blaming Kobe for everyone else's defensive mishaps...? Doesn't make any sense at all. Confidence doesn't make you a good defensive player, and neither does offensive production.

You're right, the personel we have lack the ability to personally play good defense. It's the collective effort though that is missing. And how do you gain the collective effort? By getting them confidence on the offensive end.

As bad as Sasha is, his defense improves dramatically when he's hitting his shots. When he's hitting his shots, he's drawing fouls and getting in people's faces on defense. I don't expect him to shut anybody down. What I expect is that type of effort.

With players like Sasha and Farmar, their effort goes down when they stand around and watch Kobe chuck. We're never going to win it all if Kobe doesn't get rid of the chucker mentality and return to his 3-peat mentality or mentality earlier this season.

so you want Kobe to babysit these guys?

they need to grow the ef up if they wanna win a championship

It's called leading. Kobe's the vet, and this is a young team. That's what he has to do unfortunately. You look at it as babysitting, I look at it as leading.

is taking responsibility too much to ask? Yes we need a collective defensive effot to win but more importantly everyone one individually has to take pride in their defense and its quite obvious they'd much rather score than get down and dirty to grind out a defensive stop. These guys are not high schoolers, they're in the pros, they're getting paid millions...they should be able to motivate themselves to bring the energy

As far as motivation well lets get serious. Championship teams lose to Lottery teAMS EVERY YEAR. The motivation is different. when the Lakers werent very good, we beat Spurs and Suns and dallas sometimes. It happens. kobe is kobe and with all his flaws, he is still the best in the game. but I think this team has had enough downs to not get burned out by the Playoffs. IE boston, detroit, and Dallas of recent seasons

Again - this team, as currently constructed won't make it out of the second round of the playoffs, let alone the West or win the Finals.---fido on 2011 Lakers

It's called leading. Kobe's the vet, and this is a young team. That's what he has to do unfortunately. You look at it as babysitting, I look at it as leading.

Trust your teammates. That's a true leader.

My biggest beef with Kobe was he didn't trust his teammates enough. He has grown alot the last 2 years so I rarely criticize him like I did the seasons just after Shaq. Yesterday he needed to probably cut the shots down to 28 not 38. The whole team was not running the triangle so in some way they need to hold each other accountable for shot selection.

[color="#DDA0DD"]•"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We."

My biggest beef with Kobe was he didn't trust his teammates enough. He has grown alot the last 2 years so I rarely criticize him like I did the seasons just after Shaq. Yesterday he needed to probably cut the shots down to 28 not 38. The whole team was not running the triangle so in some way they need to hold each other accountable for shot selection.

Here is a quiz for you ab4sure. Tell me who had the better two games. In Game 1, Player A had 18 points and 12 rebounds and player B had 3 points and 1 rebound. Player A's team won. In Game 2, Player A had 25 points and 20 rebounds and player B had 14 points and 3 rebounds and once again Player A's team won. Just curious who had the better games of the two. will hang up and listen.

Not enough info. If player A shot 50 shots a game I wouldn't call that a good game. Which is why I included number of shots taken. Also you have to see how long they were on the court. Trick question yet something tells me you didn't consider those other variables. PJ stresses efficiency with his players and I am sure he would say Shaq had a great game with those kind of stats. Kobe had a good game but not efficient as recognized even by Lakernation.

Edited by ab4sure, March 02, 2009 - 09:49 PM.

[color="#DDA0DD"]•"Good teams become great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrender the Me for the We."

Not enough info. If player A shot 50 shots a game I wouldn't call that a good game. Which is why I included number of shots taken. Also you have to see how long they were on the court. Trick question yet something tells me you didn't consider those other variables. PJ stresses efficiency with his players and I am sure he would say Shaq had a great game with those kind of stats. Kobe had a good game but not efficient as recognized even by Lakernation.

No it wasn't a trick question. That is what Howard did to Bynum both times they met this year.